Interview

Hair/Makeup

“The Eyes of Tammy Faye” Oscar-Nominated Hair & Makeup Team on Helping Chastain Channel Faye

Come this Sunday at the 94th Academy Awards ceremony, Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram, and Justin Raleigh may all win their first gold statuette for hair and makeup. The makeup department head, hair department head, and head special makeup effects artist, respectively, are nominated for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, the biopic starring Jessica Chastain, nominated for lead actress, and Andrew Garfield as the renowned and scandal-ridden evangelists Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker.

By Julie Jacobs  |  March 25, 2022

Interview

Production Designer

The Favourite‘s Oscar-Nominated Production Designer Re-Makes History

*In the run-up to this Sunday’s Oscars telecast, we’re sharing some of our favorite interviews with nominees. 

England’s Queen Anne, who only reigned from 1707 to 1714, is hardly the most notable female British sovereign, but to watch her played by Olivia Colman in director Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite, one might wonder why this the first we’re hearing of her in so long. True to history,

By Susannah Edelbaum  |  February 22, 2019

Interview

Production Designer

Oscar Watch: The Favourite‘s Production Designer Re-Designs History With a Flourish

England’s Queen Anne, who only reigned from 1707 to 1714, is hardly the most notable female British sovereign, but to watch her played by Olivia Colman in director Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite, one might wonder why this the first we’re hearing of her in so long. True to history, Lanthimos’s depiction of the queen shows her nearly constantly ill and in other ways unwell—she is in possession of 17 rabbits,

By Susannah Edelbaum  |  January 15, 2019

Interview

Editor

Oscar Watch: The Favourite‘s Editor on Cutting the Year’s Most Deliciously Devilish Film

Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite is a delicious piece of filmmaking. Gorgeous to look at, actors having the times of their lives, and that special brand of merry malice that Lanthimos is uniquely capable of is all on the menu here. Set in the 18th-century, The Favourite revolves around Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) and rival courtiers Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) and Abigail (Emma Stone) who vie for her attention,

By Bryan Abrams  |  January 2, 2019
Glimpse Three of the Year’s Best Performances in First Full The Favourite Trailer

A new Yorgos Lanthimos is an event. It’s an opportunity to go into a theater and either white-knuckle your way through something deeply alarming (here’s looking at you, The Killing of a Sacred Deer and Dogtooth), or something offbeat, funny, and deliciously weird (The Lobster). Now the unpredictable director is back with The Favourite, a period piece set in 18th century England,

By Bryan Abrams  |  September 4, 2018

Interview

Actor

Super Troopers 2 Star Kevin Heffernan Discusses The Gleefully Insane Sequel

If for no other reason than sheer longevity, comedy collective Broken Lizard deserves a shout-out for sticking together. The five guys who specialize in “low brow humor for high-brow people,” as ensemble member Kevin Heffernan puts it, started cracking each other up around 1990 as undergrads at Colgate University. Twenty-eight years later, they’ve created R-rated Super Troopers 2 (opening today), which aims to outdo the raunchy slapstick featured in their 2001 sleeper hit.

By Hugh Hart  |  April 20, 2018

Interview

Graphic Designer

Graphic Designer Erica Dorn Sweats the Details for Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs

When Erica Dorn heard Wes Anderson needed a London-based, Japanese-speaking graphic designer for his new stop-motion movie, she jumped from the world of advertising into her first feature film and helped produce the precision-tooled typography, signage, documents and product packaging now on display in Isle of Dogs. Born and raised in Japan, Dorn moved at age 18 to England to study illustration, then worked on branding campaigns. Passing a two-week Isle of Dogs audition,

By Hugh Hart  |  April 4, 2018

Interview

Actor

Accept, Enjoy, Enthuse: Jeff Goldblum on his Mantra, Isle of Dogs & More

Jeff Goldblum is a bon vivant at heart. He always seems to be having a good time no matter what he is doing. No wonder he told Vanity Fair that his mantra is “Accept, enjoy, enthuse.” Even when he is only heard and not seen, as is the case in Wes Anderson’s stop-motion, Japanese-infused adventure Isle of Dogs, the 65-year-old actor brings joy to his role as Duke,

By Susan Wloszczyna  |  March 23, 2018

Interview

Composer

A Look at the Career of Brian Eno, Me and Earl and The Dying Girl‘s Composer

Tell me about a new Brian Eno record – one he recorded, wrote and/or produced – and yeah, I’ll hear it. What, he made a mobile app? Hold the phone. He has a new art installation? Take me. A deck of cards? A published diary?

You get it: I’m pro-Eno, 24/7.

This week another Eno project arrives in the form of an indie film score.

By  |  June 10, 2015

Interview

Director

Me and Earl and The Dying Girl Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon has faced rejection before in the movie business. In 2014, his horror film The Town that Dreaded Sundown was only released in a few theaters nationwide and then went straight to video on demand. He wanted a chance for that film to build an audience but never had the opportunity. The Texas born filmmaker had steadily worked his way up through the ranks, starting as a personal assistant for some of Hollywood's biggest stars (Nora Ephron,

By  |  June 8, 2015

Interview

Director

James Franco, Jonah Hill Matched up for Murder? Director Rupert Goold Explains

True Story is just that: the real-life story of a journalist who meets with a criminal to understand his crime and write a book about the experience.

In one corner is Michael Finkel, a former star journalist for The New York Times who gets fired after stretching the truth in a magazine cover story. And across the table is Christian Longo, an Oregon man accused of murdering his wife and two children and then going on the run in Mexico.

By  |  April 14, 2015

Interview

Editor

Invisibly Invaluable: Birdman Editors Douglas Crise & Stephen Mirrione – PART II

Yesterday we posted Part I of our interview with Birdman editors Stephen Mirrione and Douglas Crise. As you know by now, Birdman was shot in a such an ingenious way that it made you feel like you were watching a single, 119-minute continuous shot. Watch it and try to find a single cut, a single break in the action or a clear transition that would alert you to the work of an editor.

By  |  January 7, 2015

Interview

Editor

Invisibly Invaluable: Birdman Editors Douglas Crise & Stephen Mirrione – Part I

Yesterday we published our interview with Birdman writer/director Alejandor G. Iñárritu, and late last year, we spoke to the film’s composer, drummer Antonio Sanchez. Birdman was sufficiently strange and wonderful that it’s made us want to know as much as we possibly can about how it was made. The first and most obvious question one asks after seeing the film is how in the world they made it look like a single,

By  |  January 6, 2015

Interview

Cinematographer

2014 in Review: DP Robert Yeoman on The Grand Budapest Hotel

When people think of Wes Anderson’s films, often the first thing that comes to mind is their singular look. Here is a director with a signature style, whose films look like nobody else’s. As the year draws to a close, we’re looking back on some of our favorite films and chatting with the people who helped bring them to life. Today, that means cinematographer Bob Yeoman, the man who has helped Anderson achieve his look since Anderson’s breakout 1996 debut,

By  |  December 29, 2014

Interview

Director Screenwriter

Working Through Birdman’s Brilliant Contradictions

Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Birdman, out October 17th, marks his first formal foray into the comedy world, but this film only strengthens his reputation for touching, intricately woven narratives. A little too intricate, perhaps, as Iñárritu’s focus on contradiction, validation, and all things meta blend into a swirling mass of crises for both viewers and characters alike. But worry not – Iñárritu has a plan, and Birdman proves to be a film that brings an audience closer to the story than they might expect.

By  |  September 15, 2014

Interview

Cinematographer

DP Emmanuel Lubezki Soars Again With Birdman

Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki could credibly claim to have put together some of the greatest shots in modern filmmaking. By the early aughts he’d already worked with a slew of great American directors, including Mike Nichols (The Birdcage, 1996), Martin Brest (Meet Joe Black, 1998) Tim Burton (Sleep Hollow, 1999), and Michael Mann (Ali, 2001), to say nothing of the generation defining 1994 film Reality Bites,

By  |  September 2, 2014

Interview

Actor Director

BK 101: How International Cast & Crew of The Drop Studied Brooklyn

A Belgian, a Brit and a Swede walk into a Brooklyn bar. This is either the beginning of that rare joke involving Belgians and Swedes, or, it's exactly what was happening when the cast and crew behind The Drop were working their butts off to become credible Brooklynites while prepping for the crime thriller. Directed by the Belgian Michaël Roskam, and starring Tom Hardy (British) and Noomi Rapace (Swedish), much of the cast and a good number of the crew are from outside the U.S.,

By  |  August 27, 2014

Interview

Actor

Saying Goodbye to James Gandolfini in The Drop

James Gandolfini’s final film performance can be seen this September 12 in The Dropdirected by Michaël Roskam. The script, the first by master crime writer Dennis Lehane, is based on his short story “Animal Rescue.” Gandolfini plays Cousin Marv, a once formidable Brooklyn heavy who now runs his namesake bar, a place that does a little more than provide drinks to thirsty locals. Cousin Marv’s place is a also a ‘drop bar,’

By  |  August 26, 2014

Interview

Art Director

Painting a Renaissance Masterpiece From Scratch for The Grand Budapest Hotel

Renaissance painter Johannes van Hoytl the Younger (1613-1669) worked in solitude. Known for his use of light and shade, as well as his attraction to the lustrous and velvety, the painter was particularly un-prolific and a financial failure. Yet, van Hoytl nevertheless produced up to a dozen of the finest portraits the world has ever seen.

He also never existed.

In 2012, director Wes Anderson approached 62-year-old British portrait artist Michael Taylor with a unique challenge: create a fictional Renaissance painting—not too Italian and with a bit of a northern spin—for his upcoming film,

By  |  April 2, 2014

Interview

Actor Director

“My Muse”: Directors & Actors Who Keep Working Together—Part I

The Wolf of Wall Street marks the fifth collaboration between director Martin Scorsese and star Leonardo DiCaprio. But not all frequent director-actor pairings are made in A-list heaven. Many high-profile directors collaborate repeatedly with an actor who simply shares a similar vision, understands their method, or can read between the lines of a script—no matter if the actor is famous or a B-lister. In part one of a two-part series, the Credits takes a look at four frequent director-actor pairings you may not have realized have been right under your nose for years to discover what makes those collaborations tick.

By  |  December 24, 2013